Showing posts with label Olbermann. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Olbermann. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 09, 2011

Olbermann heads to Caffeine Dreams


This just in on the latest career move by former left-wing MSNBC flamethrower Keith Olbermann. No, not the Current TV gig . . . the next one:

Feb. 27, 2013

OMAHA -- Firebrand cable-TV personality Keith Olbermann today announced to passing traffic on a frigid street corner in this Midwestern city that he will stage yet another media comeback next week, thumbtacking typewritten "special comment" fliers to the bulletin board at a popular coffee shop.

The former
Current TV host and longtime liberal icon said his latest basic-cable falling out was a "blessing in disguise" which would allow him to explore "the postmodern, anticontextual steam-punk alternative-media scene" at Caffeine Dreams, 4524 Farnam St.

Making an obscene gesture at a pickup truck sporting a red, white and blue "God's Own Party" bumper sticker, Olbermann said he expected to schedule his post-technological postings for Wednesdays at 10:35 a.m. -- give or take 20 minutes, depending on whether the No. 2 Metro bus makes it to the 46th and Dodge bus stop on time. The midmorning commentaries are to coincide with the onetime opinion-maker's weekly triple brevé with an extra espresso shot and fat-free half-and-half.

Olbermann exited Current unexpectedly three months ago, after calling former Vice-President Al Gore, founder of the cable channel, a "poorly-endowed, fat-ass, proto-Republican enviro-phony whose inconvenient truth, alas, was that he wasn't man enough for a fine side of Tennessee ham like Tipper." Gore immediately dismissed the outspoken TV personality after having his Secret Service detail brand "AM NOT NEITHER" on Olbermann's forehead.

That led to a monthslong disappearance for the TV talker, who previously, according to one former colleague, "napalmed his bridges" at CNN, ESPN and MSNBC before landing at Current TV in February 2011. At the time, cable-TV analysts were optimistic that Olbermann easily would be able to increase the channel's viewership a thousandfold, to a daily audience of roughly 30,000.

Those predictions turned out to be wildly overstated, and tensions between Olbermann and Gore mounted proportionately with Current's ratings disappointments.

Olbermann turned up at the Omaha Greyhound station a week ago, paying various transients a dollar to tell their "homies," as the fading TV star put it, about his post-mass media comeback on the Caffeine Dreams bulletin board.

When contacted by a reporter, a coffee-shop barista said she thought it would be all right if Olbermann posted his special comments on the bulletin board, so long as the owner OK'd it and it didn't keep customers from getting to the self-serve café Americano carafes.

Tuesday, November 09, 2010

Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania
has always been at war with Eurasia.


Two words on Keith Olbermann: Arrogant. Insufferable. Ass.

OK, three words on Keith Olbermann. . . .

Obviously, the man has no concept of humility. He is as entitled as his -- my -- entire generation, and journalistic ethics (not to mention NBC News rules) are dumb and irrelevant "to 21st-century journalism" because, primarily, Olbermann didn't feel like abiding by them.

Because American citizenship is all rights and no obligations. Obviously.


AMERICA IS two warring camps now, left and right, and all that matters to either is destruction of the Other. Three hundred thousand viewers petitioned MSNBC to bring Olbermann back merely because he is of their tribe (principle, justice and journalism be damned) and, more importantly, because he hates the Other Tribe.

That's all that matters today. Hating the right people. Well, hating the right people . . .
and loving money. Money, gobs of which can be earned by giving the people exactly what they want to hear. Just look at Fox News, for God's sake.

So
MSNBC caved in a couple of days, and Keith Olbermann gets to come back on the air unapologetically "apologetic," kicking his bosses in the nuts the whole time.

And the lonesome, painful . . . soprano . . . moaning you hear off in the distance is that of
MSNBC's president, Phil Griffin, lamenting his lost manhood.

Saturday, November 06, 2010

Hannity's mom can deal with Hannity


This is all fine and dandy, Rachel Maddow. We get it.

Fox News Channel and its video politicos using an alleged cable-news outfit for unending political propaganda is bad. Worse than Keith Olbermann even.

Fine.

Now, if you're in high school and get called into the vice-principal's office --
or, hell, get called into your boss' office at work -- on a disciplinary matter, what is the instantaneous response when you earnestly point out how much worse (and unpunished) everybody else is than you?

C'MON, this is a no-brainer. I'm sure your mom came back at you with this one a bazillion times.

The instant, and universal, response to your protestations is "This is not about them. This is about what you did. I will deal with them when the time comes."

And then you get suspended. Or fired. Or grounded.

Because Mom always liked him better.

Listen, Rach. We all know what Fox is. Fox is not MSNBC's kid.

We all know that Fox is a spoiled juvenile delinquent and, chances are, he's going to come to no damned good. He'll probably wind up in jail. You're not being raised that way.

I DON'T WANT to hear anymore of your whining. Now go to your room.

And I don't want to hear that stereo of yours blasting, either, young lady!
Don't you give me that look!

Friday, November 05, 2010

Ratings or credibility, that is the question


Keith Olbermann is many things. Until now, I didn't figure that moron was one of them.

I may have been horribly wrong. At any rate, MSNBC's liberal firebrand -- amid a whole cable channel of them -- is sitting on the bench, sans paycheck, "indefinitely," according to management.

Benched for being a moron. And for giving maximum contributions to three political candidates, all of whom he had as guests on his
Countdown program.

That's a gross violation of a pretty unambiguous NBC News policy. It's also a gross violation of common sense for anyone who calls himself a journalist.

It's one thing to have a point of view as a reporter or news personality. It's entirely another to be "in the tank" for one -- or several -- of the people or entities you cover.


OLBERMANN, whether he thinks so or not, nevertheless has given the strongest impression that he's absolutely, positively in the tank. Politico, which broke the story of the TV host's faux-est of journalistic "pas" reports on the aftermath:
MSNBC host Keith Olbermann has been suspended indefinitely without pay after POLITICO reported that he made three campaign contributions to Democratic candidates.

MSNBC President Phil Griffin said in a statement Friday: “I became aware of Keith's political contributions late last night. Mindful of NBC News policy and standards, I have suspended him indefinitely without pay."

Olbermann made campaign contributions to two Arizona members of Congress and failed Kentucky Senate candidate Jack Conway ahead of Tuesday’s election.

Olbermann, who acknowledged the contributions in a statement to POLITICO, made the maximum legal donations of $2,400 apiece to Conway and to Arizona Reps. Raul Grijalva and Gabrielle Giffords. He donated to the Arizona pair on Oct. 28 — the same day that Grijalva appeared as a guest on Olbermann’s “Countdown” show.

NBC has a rule against employees contributing to political campaigns, and a wide range of news organizations prohibit political contributions — considering it a breach of journalistic independence to contribute to the candidates they cover.

Chris Hayes, the Washington editor for The Nation and a previous fill-in for Rachel Maddow, will fill in for Olbermann tonight, MSNBC confirmed.

Olbermann is one of MSNBC’s most recognizable faces, and has emerged as one of the country’s most prominent liberal commentators. A former ESPN star, Olbermann’s “Countdown With Keith Olbermann” started in 2003 as a traditional news show but evolved into a left-leaning opinion program – and in some ways, led the network into its new identity as the cable-news voice of the left and an attempt to be a counterweight to Fox News.

Inside MSNBC, employees were shocked at the news of Olbermann’s suspension. Despite a reputation for a prickly personality off-air, Olbermann was given wide berth inside the network because of his stature – and his ratings.

Insiders were stunned that Griffin moved so swiftly to yank one of the network’s true stars off the air, and some suspected that the recent tensions with NBC News, which has grown increasingly uneasy with its sister network’s more ideological stance, contributed to the swift decision. Some have even speculated that Comcast’s coming merger with NBC Universal has heightened sensitivities about MSNBC’s ideological profile.

MSNBC has branded Olbermann as a prominent face in its new “Lean Forward” marketing campaign. He tripled MSNBC’s ratings at 8 p.m. In the past two years, MSNBC’s more opinionated hosts have helped propel it past CNN in prime time, and even lately during the daytime, too.

Despite MSNBC’s embrace of a more opinionated format, NBC News has a policy against its employees making political contributions – and it appears that Olbermann ran afoul of that policy, even by contributing to candidates he gave a platform on his show, like Grijalva.

In addition, Olbermann has been a critic of the political donations made by Fox News’s parent company, News Corp., which contributed $1 million each to a pair of organizations trying to defeat Democratic candidates.

Griffin also tweaked rival network Fox over the contributions. “Show me an example of us fundraising,” Griffin told The New York Times last month.
GETTING good ratings is one thing. As far as I'm concerned, the lengths to which America's cable-news outfits have gone to obtain them neither is good for journalism nor good for the civic life of the country.

Basically, how much is a soul worth -- either human or institutional?

If MSNBC's is worth anything anymore, Keith Olbermann, the sports commentator turned liberal news host, needs to be taken off the bench . . .
and put on waivers.

No, forget that. He just needs to be flat-out released.

Sunday, November 02, 2008

Keith Olbermann's special torment


Make a note: Saturday night was when Keith Olbermann and MSNBC's Countdown jumped the shark.

I admit to having enjoyed watching Countdown -- taking it for what it is, which most definitely
is not a straight news show . . . what few of those exist anymore. I plead guilty as charged to loving me a good Bush-bashing, and few have been as good at that as Olbermann.

But.

Customers at the Mouth-Foaming Outrage Store are limited to "X" quantity of purchases, and Keith Olbermann tried to get away with buying 72 shopping carts full of
"I'm pissed! PISSED, I tell you!" Note that "X" is less than 72, and the consequence was Ben Affleck's hilariously vicious sendup of Olbermann on Saturday Night Live..

As in the sad case of Arthur Herbert Fonzarelli, I'm afraid Olbermann and MSNBC will find it would have been more merciful had the shark not been safely cleared.

Friday, August 29, 2008

See, it's kind of like Foster Brooks
telling Lindsay Lohan to sober up


It's a bad, bad reflection on the product you're putting on the air when the likes of Connie Chung is telling your anchors to grow up.

TO REMIND YOU of how horrible an indictment that is for MSNBC's political coverage, I reluctantly have posted Mrs. Maury Povich's -- Really, doesn't that say it all right there? -- farewell to her and Maury's three viewers when the cable network canceled their weekend show in 2006.

But, for what it's worth, here's a
Wall Street Journal account of on-air behavior so disturbing that Chung was willing to suffer the inevitable slings and arrows (such as mine) accompanying her, of all people, calling out the malefactors:
The convention was supposed to be the network's coming-out party as a hub for politics. But a year of programming and personnel changes have led to behind-the-scenes strain, which bubbled to the surface repeatedly this week in open arguments between hosts.

In an uncomfortable moment Tuesday night, an exhausted-looking "Hardball" host Chris Matthews shouted at a producer ("I'll wrap in a second!") before a stilted exchange with "Countdown" host Keith Olbermann, in which the two argued about who was talking out of turn. Mr. Olbermann made a flapping-lips hand gesture, and Mr. Matthews took umbrage. House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer sat quietly on-screen, waiting to be interviewed.

That incident followed a seven-minute back-and-forth Tuesday afternoon between "Morning Joe" host Joe Scarborough and network correspondent David Shuster. Mr. Scarborough, a former Republican representative from Florida, accused Mr. Shuster, a registered independent, of taking a "cheap shot" by mentioning his party affiliation. Mr. Scarborough sarcastically added: "I feel so comforted by the fact that you're an independent. I bet everyone at MSNBC has 'independent' on their voting cards."

Since the early days of CNN's "Crossfire," cable news has relied on strong personalities to keep drama high and viewers tuned in throughout the day, when news isn't always exciting enough to keep the audience's attention. Passionate debate can make for great television -- and terrific ratings.

But some found this level of personal bickering hard to watch.

"My reaction to that is: 'Grow up!' They have to just grow up," said Connie Chung, a former MSNBC host and former co-anchor of "CBS Evening News."

I DON'T KNOW about you, but I need a stiff drink.

But until I can go round up a fifth of Early Times for each of us, I thought I'd remind us all of what it was like when the grown-ups still ran TV news: